CHAPTER IX

AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SHAFT

While Elsa had been entertaining the stranger within doors Jessica had sought Wolfgang and compelled him, by her coaxing, to admit that Ephraim Marsh had been there and, also, that Antonio Bernal had ridden up that morning to give orders about the coal.

"None of it is to be sent down to the ranch, he said, no matter who calls for it, till he comes back. He was going away for a time and----How will you get on at Sobrante without him, Lady Jess?"

"Wolfgang, better than with him. Listen. Look at me. I'm the 'manager' now. The captain. The 'boys' all elected me or made me, whatever way they fixed it. I'm to be the master. I, just Jessica. Guess I'm proud? Guess I'll do the very, very best ever a girl can do? Nobody is to be any different, though. You're to go on mining just the same and John Benton says, quite often, it's high time you had another hand to help up here. He says with coal fifteen dollars a ton there's money in it, even if it is a weeny little mine. So, if you want a man, any time, just let me know. Ha!"

With an amusing little strut that was mostly affectation the girl passed up and down before the miner, and ended her performance by a hearty hug. It was impossible for her to withhold her caresses from anybody who loved her; and who did not, at Sobrante, save Antonio and Ferd, the dwarf? But she sobered quickly enough and at Wolfgang's petition to "Tell me all about it already," gave him a vivid picture of the changes at her home.

"But now Antonio has gone for a month, things will get straightened all out again. When he comes back I'll have that deed to show him, and once he gets it out of his vain head that he is owner and not my mother, he'll get sensible and good again, as he used to be. I wish I liked him better. That would make it easier for me to give up being 'captain' when the time comes. What makes one love some people and not others, Wolfgang? You ought to know, you've lived a long time."

"The good God."

"He wouldn't make us dislike anybody. That can't be the right reason."

"Then I know not. Though I am getting old I'm not so wise, little one. But--ought I? Ought I not?"

"What?"

"Now you hark me. This Ephraim--guess you what that Antonio said of him?"

"How should I? Yes, that's not the truth. But what he said was so dreadful I wouldn't even tell my mother."

"Ach! A child should tell the mother all things. Heed that. It is so we train our Otto."

Jessica laughed.

"Otto is no child. He is a grown man. He is bigger than you. You should not shame him by keeping him a boy always."

"Pst! girl! I would not he heard you, for my life."

"He'll not hear. Elsa is talking. But what did Antonio say about my old 'Forty-niner'?"

"That much went with that old man besides his boots."

"Of course. The feet that were in them, I suppose. Silly Wolfgang, to be so impressed by a sillier Antonio. The boys say his Spanish maxims have little sense in them. That proves it."

"This deed of yours. He said: 'Where Ephraim, the wicked, goes, goes their deed to the land.' And more."

"What more? The cruel, cruel man!"

"That it mattered not already. He would come back, the master. It was his, had always been. My friend--your father--well, it was not we who listened. Nor for once would Elsa make the cup of coffee she was asked. Not a morsel got he here, save that the little boy ran after him and gave him his own bit swiebach lest he faint by the way. And that was the last word of Antonio Bernal."

Jessica's laughter was past. On her face there was a trouble it grieved her old friend to see, and he hastened to comfort her.

"If one goes, some are left already. Come now to one whose eyes will be cured by a sight of your pretty face."

"To Ephraim?"

"Even so."

He took her hand to lead her, like the tender babe he still considered her, and they passed behind the cabin, toward the rickety shaft leading into the mine. At its very mouth stood old Stiffleg, and in her delight the girl gave him, too, one of her abounding hugs, which called a comment from the miner.

"Beasts or humans, all one to your lips. Well, no matter. It's nature. Some are made that foolish way. As for me--old horses----"

"Wolfgang Winkler, shame! Now, sir, you'll wait till you ask before I kiss you again!"

"Then I ask right quick. Now! Eh? No? Well, before you go then, to prove you bear no malice; and because I'll show you a new vein I didn't show Antonio. Ach! He'll mine his own coal when once he comes--'the master'--as he said! And so I think, though I know not, will all the others say. Sobrante will not be Sobrante with us all gone. So?"

"You'll not be gone. It is my mother's."

"He is big and strong. He can plot evil, I believe."

Wolfgang spoke as if he were disclosing a mystery and not a fact well known to all who really knew the Senor Bernal.

"I will be stronger. He shall not hurt my mother. I will fight the world for her and for my brother!"

The miner had been arranging the rope upon the windlass and now held the rude little car steady with his foot.

"Step in."

"Is he below? Down in the mine?"

"Already."

Jessica needed no second bidding, but leaped lightly into the car and Wolfgang followed her more cautiously. He knew that was a forbidden delight to her, for Mrs. Trent was nervously timid concerning such visits, but, like her, felt that the present circumstances justified the proceeding. Was not one below in the darkness, nursing a broken heart? And was not it the supreme business of each and all at Sobrante to comfort the sorrowing? How else had he and his been there, so happy and comfortable? So rich, also. Why, Elsa had----

"Lady Jess! Get Elsa to show you the buckskin bag! It has grown as fat as herself since you last saw it. The child will own the mine some day, believe me!"

Moved by the thought he swiftly lowered away, and as the car touched the bottom, the girl sprang out and ran calling in the narrow tunnel:

"Ephraim! My Ephraim! Where are you? I've come for you, I, Jessica! It's a dreadful mistake. My mother--ah! here you are! Why down in this horrid hole, Ephraim Marsh? You're all shivering, it's so damp and dismal. For shame! To run away from your best friends and never give them a chance to tell you. Whoever wrote that note and sent you off from your own home, it never was my mother. Never! She said so, and it's almost broken her heart."

"It's quite broken mine," said the old frontiersman, sobbing in his relief at having been thus promptly sought and found by his beloved "lady." For he did not know it was quite by accident that she had stumbled on this trace of him, nor did anybody enlighten him. Whether she would have set him right or not she had no chance, for, at that instant, they heard a hoarse cry at the mouth of the shaft and saw the car, their only means of ascent, moving swiftly out of reach.

"Heart of grace! Why that? Hark the woman! 'Tis the child! It is the little boy! Harm has befallen and I--the father--I below in the ground!"

In his alarm Wolfgang danced about the narrow space and wrung his hands, gazing frantically up the shaft, catching hold of his companions and conducting himself altogether like one bereft of common sense. Which behavior was sufficient to restore Ephraim Marsh to his own self-command, and none too soon; for the anxious father had already begun to try the ascent by climbing up the timbered sides when, suddenly, as if propelled by some extraordinary force the car shot downward again. Before it really touched bottom the shrieks had become deafening, and when Elsa jumped out and rushed upon her husband, he clapped his hands to his ears and retreated as far as the chamber permitted.

"She has gone mad, already! The woman is dement! Hark, the clamor!"

Then he remembered his first fear and clutched his wife's arm, which promptly went around his neck and threatened him with suffocation.

"Well, well, I never had no wife, but if I'd had I wouldn't cared to have her choke me to death a-loving me, nor split my ears a-telling me of it," commented "Forty-niner," dryly.

At which Elsa's screams instantly ceased, and she turned her attention upon him.

"Where is it, thief? Give it up, this minute! How could you rob me of my hard-earned money? That was to buy the mine--and the vein runs deep--for my little boy, my child! 'Twas Antonio Bernal, the great man, told us already of the deed you stole! But I believed him not--I. Now, give me my money, my money--money!"

Overcome by her own violent emotion, rather than by any opposition of poor Ephraim's, her hands slid from his shoulders, which she had been shaking as if she would jingle the cash from his pockets, and her plump person settled limply against him for support.

"Hello, here, woman! This is a drop too much! Take the creature, Winkler, and find out if you can what in misery ails her. She's clean out of her wits."

Instinctively, Jessica had placed herself at the old sharpshooter's side. He should feel that she did not believe this terrible accusation, which recalled to her, with painful significance, the parting words of Antonio Bernal as he had ridden away from her window that morning. These had practically accused him of stealing the missing deed, and now came Elsa with this talk of "money, money." She brushed her hand across her eyes as if to waken herself from some frightful dream and then smiled up into Ephraim's eyes, now bent inquiringly upon her. Dim as the light was, there was yet sufficient descending through the shallow shaft to reveal each troubled face to the other, and the old man's own frightened at the confiding trust of his beloved pupil's.

"Never mind her. Let her scream and loll around, if she wants to. What matters it? Little lady, am I or am I not a--a--that pizen thing she called me?"

"Never!"

"Then come on. Let's get out of this."

But he was not to be permitted to escape so easily. Elsa had now recovered her full strength and, oddly enough, her composure. She waved her husband toward the waiting car and he obeyed her gesture without protest, gently lifting Jessica into it, for she would not otherwise have been removed from Ephraim's side.

"Go with him, lady. Elsa won't want to _live_ down here and we'll follow presently. Never had a woman seem so fond of my company, not in all my eighty years. H-m-m!"

Commonly, the most genial of men, the sharpshooter's spirits had fully regained their normal poise. Since he had not been dismissed by Mrs. Trent, and since his little Jessica believed in him, everything was all right. Elsa had been hoarding so long for her overgrown "child" that she had lost her wits. He wasn't surprised. She was a woman.

So, with a smile, he was able to watch the car disappear upward, and he even began to whistle, lest Elsa should improve this opportunity and resume her racket.

"No disrespect to you, ma'am, remembering the good victuals you've often given me, but kind of to keep my courage up, like the boy going through the woods."

Elsa vouchsafed no reply, beyond grasping his sleeve firmly, as if to assure herself that he should not vanish through the solid wall behind them; and he, at least, was relieved when the little car came rolling downward again, empty.

Elsa, who understood its management as well as her husband, grasped its side and motioned Ephraim forward.

"Ladies first," he objected, gallantly.

"Get in, wretch, already."

"Oh! I'm not loath to get in, now. Even your sweet presence doesn't make this hole a paradise. And I came down here a heavy-hearted man, yet I've going up light as a feather. Glad I've got you along to ballast, else I'd likely shoot clean up to the sky."

Poor Elsa thought his hilarity ill-timed. She glared at him first, then began to weep, and her tears sobered him as no frowns could do.

"Look, here, old girl, cheer up! Likely it's only a passing fit of madness has got you in tow. Women are kittle cattle, I've been told. Except Lady Jess and the madam. But they're quality. It's in their blood to be noble just as 'tis in--well, let that go. If you've lost any of your money, as you 'pear to think, you'll find it again. Why, you're bound to. Who is there to steal it save your own selves? Likely you've got up some dark night in your sleep and hid it away so careful you've forgot the place. Good! The top and fresh air again, thank Heaven!"

Mr. Hale had left the cabin immediately after Elsa, and though inclined to stoop and gather up her scattered coins had refrained from doing so, restrained by that prudence which becomes second nature to lawyers.

"She thinks somebody has robbed her and would probably accuse me of pocketing some of these. Too much money for anybody to keep in a house," he reflected, forgetting that banks were not accessible to everybody. "But it's an ill wind, etc. Now I shall be apt to escape that promised visit to an amateur coal mine, and not endanger my life in their rickety car."

Elsa's conduct upon reaching home was as curious and contradictory as ever. Instead of collecting her scattered treasure, she merely said, with a shrug of her fat shoulders:

"What good? let it lie. When the much is gone who cares for the little?"

Then she dropped into a chair and began again to cry, disconsolately.

Jessica could not endure the scene.

"Oh! I hate this! Elsa, stop. Be happy. Nobody has robbed you. If there has 'tis nobody here. I'm going home. I was having such a good time and I've found dear Ephraim. I'll ask leave to come again to-morrow, maybe, and you'll have it by then. Just as I shall the title. 'Tis only that you've been careless, as--as somebody else was. Good-by. We're going. Say good-by, won't you?"

Elsa's good-by was to seize Ephraim's coat and hold it with all her force, but he was now too happy to object to this.

"Certain, ma'am. If you've took a notion to it, I'll leave it with you. Coats don't matter, when hearts are light. Yes, look in the pockets. Like enough 'twill ease your mind a bit. I'd give her a dose of sagebrush tea, Wolfgang. Catnip 'd be better, but ain't so handy. Good-by, all. I'll be 'round again, myself, soon, if the lady can spare me," and with this remark, "Forty-niner" quietly slipped out of the loose garment and made his escape.

There was no more talk of inspecting the ranch. The little party of three rode thoughtfully homeward. Even Ephraim's gayety had ebbed and the strange accusation Elsa had made began at last to claim his serious attention. Thieving was a new matter at Sobrante, though he, along with all the other "boys," had thought for many months that the manager was dealing unfairly by his mistress and employer. This affair would have to be sifted to the bottom, and he didn't like it. He was glad to be going back to his familiar quarters, glad of many things, yet his light-heartedness was quite gone.

Mr. Hale was equally silent and self-absorbed. Every hour he spent among these people, like innocent children all they seemed to him, but interested him the more in them. Their unhappiness disturbed him and yet his own mission was to make them more unhappy still.

Jessica was angry, indignant, and amused by turns; but these troubles were changing her swiftly from a careless little girl to a sadly perplexed captain, and she rode along in silence, for most of the way, forgetting entirely that she had meant to take quite another route, or that her present errand was to exhibit the wonders of her beloved Sobrante.

They cantered peacefully downward across the valley, old Stiffleg himself leading the way, till they struck upon the main road and saw in the distance a vehicle crawling forward upon it.

"Oh! oh!" cried Jessica, who had been first to observe this object.

"Heigho! What's that--a circus?" asked Mr. Hale, gazing curiously at the strange wagon.

Ephraim shaded his eyes with his hand and peered into the distance. Then he dropped it, and drooping ridiculously, groaned:

"Oh! my fathers!"

"Looks like a circus. All the colors of the rainbow," persisted Mr. Hale, glad of any diversion to his perturbed thoughts.

"'Tis a circus, temperance union, a salvation army, a woman's rights convention, what Samson calls a Mother Carey's chicken, an Amazon, a wild Indian, a--a--shucks! There isn't anything on earth that yonder doesn't try a hand at. Land of Goshen! I'd almost rather turn and go back to be jawed by the Dutchwoman. And I've come home--just for this!"

But Jessica was laughing as she had not laughed all day, and if the person driving along in front was objectionable to Ephraim it was evidently not the fact in her case.

"Oh! how glad I am!" she cried, and touched Buster to his swiftest gallop, while the sharpshooter grimaced and groaned:

"To have come back to this!"